Robotic arm for British Army bomb disposal robot. Featuring ‘haptic feedback’ that allows the user to ‘feel’ resistance through the controls and offer more complex and precise operations. The robot supports the demanding requirements of commercial and military missions, including hazardous materials (HAZMAT) clean-up, explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and special weapons and tactics (SWAT) missions.

L3Harris is an $18b+ US company that provides cutting-edge solutions in the Land, Sea, Air, Space, and Cyber domains within the Defence, Commercial, and Civil sectors. They are an industry leader in delivering innovative integrated solutions for the global intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) market. This includes state of the art unmanned vehicle response and surveillance units such as the T7 Bomb Disposal Robot with an Olsen Actuator powered multifunctional arm. The final customer in this application was the British Army who took delivery of these robots in 2021.

The T7 robot provides best-in-class mobility, manipulation, and intuitive control, delivering uncompromised performance.

Based on the inputs of hundreds of users, L3Harris has developed the T7 robot from the ground up to support the demanding requirements of commercial and military missions, including hazardous materials (HAZMAT) clean-up, explosive ordnance disposal (EOD), intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) and special weapons and tactics (SWAT) missions.

T7’s highly intuitive interface redefines ease of use with immersive force feedback, providing unmatched command and control. Its precision control and human-like dexterity shorten task completion time and improve mission effectiveness.

The Robot required a powerful, reliable and highly accurate actuator solution to move the main operating technical arm into position.

Accuracy, precision and consistency are paramount in operations dealing with bomb disposal. It goes without saying how sudden, unpredictable movements could be catastrophic.

The multifunctional tool arm can provide laser cutting to open doors and bomb housings and the cutting and other fine detail tooling to diffuse explosives. Applications as exacting as this require the most advanced and accurate motion control.

For each robot, Olsen supplied two Tritex TDX075 DC Electric Actuators. These hold the main weight of the robotic arm, and as such, all movements are amplified through the whole arm. This means accuracy and smoothness of movement was paramount.

The Tritex TDX075 DC Electric Actuators have a 24Vdc Supply Voltage, Mil-Spec Shock and Vibration & Electro Magnetic Compatibility (EMC). This makes them ideal for this application, delivering the physical force and control required whilst matching the strict parameters required of an environment containing potential explosives.

252 actuator units (+spares) were supplied to the UK MOD for installation on the T7 Bomb Disposal Robot. The robot now provides precision control and human-like dexterity in live missions.

The rapid reconfiguration ability of the Tritex means the robot can be recalibrated quickly to a wide variety of tasks to meet evolving mission requirements.

The broad operational usage parameters of the actuators mean the robot can operate in -20°C to +60°C temperatures (limited by other equipment), and the efficient energy consumption of the Tritex enables an 8+ hour runtime from the on robot batteries.